Yeah, but there is a difference between potential competitor and an actual competitor (and especially a competitor that makes more mobiles than any other company), and Google aren't really in the business of making phones. Well, at least they weren't, I see Google has just announced a new phone, I don't know how this will change the way phone manufacturers see Google, but Google have established the Android brand now, and it will be hard for phone manufacturers not to carry on selling Android phones.

Meego is definitely late to the game, and that will make it hard to gain traction, but if Nokia does really get behind it and pushes a good implementation of it (i.e. not full of bugs) on a number of their mainstream phones, that could help Meego break into the market as a viable phone OS. I think it is too early to say whether Meego really is too late or not.